14 DAY TRIAL // With CES 2011 approaching fast, we're starting to come across all sorts of interesting products that should be revealed on that occasion, one of the latest being a Kinect-like gesture control solution for the iPad, developed by a company called Elliptic Labs.
As MobileMag reports, the company, who revealed back at IFA 2010 a Touchless Gesture User Interface technology that allowed a user to make hand movements (gestures) similar to Microsoft’s Kinect technology, has further developed their tech, managing to come up with a whole new use for it.
So, it seems that Elliptic Labs has been working on a prototype with a reference design tablet for quite some time, which has now evolved into a touchless dock prototype for the Apple iPad.
By providing a set of gestures mirroring the continuous, free and unrestricted hand movements, Mimesign technology (on which the interface is based) enables a body language more alike to what we experience in everyday human-to-human conversation.
Mimesign’s natural depth-sensing capabilities results in the ability to mirror natural and individual motions, in contrast to more rigid and ‘posed’ gestural systems.
The MimeSign interface seeks to give an instant feeling of control, as it allows users to direct their intention to the on-screen content instead of the method of input (or to the people you are sharing the media experience with, for that matter).
It's also quite important to mention that, while the model on display at CES 2011 will in fact feature an iPad, the technology can be very easily applied to just about any tablets that supports the app accompanying the docking solution and gesture recognition technology.
Of course, while the tech developed by Elliptic Labs won't affect in a very serious manner the overall iPad control mode, it might prove to be extremely useful when the iPad is docked and used for controlling other types of applications (such as presentations, games, etc.).